Organizations are looking to the Internet to help them cut costs and improve service, two typically opposing objectives. In this document, the term Internet is used generically to refer to any network which supports http protocol for browsing, such as an intranet or extranet. By electronically connecting departments and offering customers convenient online access to electronic forms, organizations can, however, cut overhead and deliver the service improvements that their constituents and clients desire.
In this document leveraging the Internet in this way is referred to as e-business, a revolution driven by both customer expectation and government legislation. In fact, the U.S. federal government has mandated that, by 2003, all agencies offer their forms electronically as well as in paper. Known as the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), this legislation responds to the public's demands for more efficient and cost-conscious government.
The Internet allows businesses that are using the Web as a tool to reap its rewards. There is little reason to make a user stand in line for 45 minutes to complete a transaction that the person could perform in two minutes online. Service-oriented firms are capitalizing on the Web to cater to time-pressed customers, serving them when and where they want—at home, at a grocery store kiosk, in the office or even on their mobile devices. Companies are building customer loyalty as the leading e-businesses raise the bar against their competition offering improved access and service.
The Internet is also generating an explosion in B2B (business-to-business) transactions. Forrester Research Inc. predicts that by 2004, U.S. B2B activity will be worth $2.7 trillion, growth fueled by tremendous expansion in the e-marketplace and e-processes. Companies that learn to operate efficiently in this new digital economy will gain a substantial edge.
This invention, by making it easy for people to access and submit forms online using the Internet, solves the issue of reaching all customers and citizens via their Web browsers—on a large variety of platforms and devices—without requiring them to download any proprietary software or plug-ins.
Organizations have typically dealt with this incompatibility in one of three ways, each of which has pronounced drawbacks.
A common approach is to create a single HTML form that operates with early versions of different browsers. Two problems exist with this “lowest common denominator” solution. First, anyone with an even earlier browser version will not be able to read the form. For example, if an organization creates an HTML form that can be read by, say, version 2.0 of different browsers, people running version 1.0 will not be able to access the form. Governments and businesses want to avoid this type of technological discrimination.
The second shortcoming of this single HTML form solution is that people will not be able to take advantage of the increased intelligence and capabilities of advanced browser versions. Consider this hypothetical example: someone applies to renew a driver's license online six months after her license expired. But, because the license has expired, she needs to submit additional information with her renewal. An advanced browser would potentially allow the license-issuing organization to automatically present the applicant with another online form required to capture the extra data. A basic HTML form may not have the intelligence to accommodate this type of interactivity, thereby causing delays in renewing the license and effectively discriminating against those without the new browser.
A second solution—and an awkward one at that—is to design and maintain separate versions of HTML forms to ensure that the Web form appears properly regardless of the user's platform or browser. But this approach involves keeping three or four different versions of the same electronic form current, a costly, risky and inconvenient restriction. Should a form change, a Web programmer has to re-design all underlying versions and make sure that the change appears uniformly in each one. The more balls in the air, however, the more likely that one will drop, and citizens or customers could easily wind up with two substantially different versions of what should be the same form.
In such a situation, two customers may well pay two different prices for the same merchandise or two hunting license applicants might pay different fees. Making the change once and knowing that it will appear properly regardless of the users' computer types or browsers would be much simpler, less costly and potentially less discriminatory.
The third traditional solution requires that citizens and customers first download a proprietary plug-in onto their computers. Once they complete this step, they can download and read forms that require this proprietary plug-in.
The problem with this approach, aside from having to find and wait for the plug-in to download and install, is that citizens and customers must also download the forms, a process that can burden them with lengthy waits. People do not appreciate waiting several minutes—or longer—for forms to finally appear.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of these traditional solutions. Not only does it avoid the pitfalls of conventional approaches, it introduces a host of value-added conveniences that make designing and distributing e-forms on the Web easier.